A Royal Marriage Problem
by Alexriolover95
Summary: On Hearts and Hooves Day, Twilight is called by the map table to the Crystal Empire to solve a friendship problem, well a romantic problem as she has to be a marriage counselor for Princess Cadance and Shining Armor!
1. Map Call

**Hey everypony! What's up!?**

 **So Valentine's Day is coming up or as we call it Hearts and Hooves Day!**

 **And I had this idea sitting around in my head for quite some time!**

 **That's pretty much all there is to say, so I hope everypony enjoys this and lets get to it!**

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Chapter 1: Map Call

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Today was the day before Hearts and Hooves Day in Equestria and everypony was getting ready for the day, setting up the holiday decorations in all the cities and towns across the land. And in Ponyville it was no different as the town was decorated in colorful red hearts. On the outskirts of town was a giant crystal castle, where the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle lived.

The princess was also getting ready for the day as she was going to spend Hearts and Hooves Day with her B.B.B.F.F. and best sister in law, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, who lived in the Crystal Empire. Also coming with her was Spike, her favorite dragon assistant and Starlight Glimmer, her student, who was excited to spend the day with her friend, Sunburst.

"Do we have everything packed Spike?" Twilight asked the dragon as Spike was holding onto a checklist.

"Yup, I think we have everything." Spike replied as he checked the bags and marked the list with checks.

"Oh boy, I have been looking froward to this for a long time now!" Twilight smiled brightly.

"You aren't the only one Twilight, I can't wait to see Sunburst." Starlight added, as she was besides Twilight with her saddle bag on her.

"Alright, lets get going." Twilight said as she began walking out of the throne room where they were gathered.

Only as soon as they were about to leave the throne room, a bright glowing light came from Twilight as she stopped and grasped. Her cutie mark was glowing, signaling another map adventure.

"Now!" Twilight complained. "But I planned this for so long!"

"Duty calls." Starlight said as the three in company turned around to look at the map, to where Twilight would be sent.

Twilight's cutie mark image circled around the map table twice, coming down until it stopped over the Crystal Empire, right above the crystal palace…

"What's going on in there?" Spike questioned.

"I don't know, but hey, at least the problem is right where we're going, what are the odds?" Twilight chuckled as she was thankful her day wasn't going to get ruined.

And so the trio, with their packed bags, went over to the train station, waiting for the next train to the crystal empire and when it came, the three got on and enjoyed the overnight journey to the edge of the frozen north where the empire was. As the empire came into view, the three stretched from the long journey as the train slowed down and came to a stop at the station. The trip getting off and made their way through the empire to the palace.

Of course, along the way they had to deal with crowds of crystal ponies, who, of course, adorned Spike, since he saved the empire twice. It took awhile but they eventually got through to the palace, where the a couple of guards helped the three disperse the crowds peacefully.

"Welcome, your highness." One of the guards said to Twilight as he bowed down.

"Thank you." Twilight replied. "Is Shining Armor and Princess Cadance inside?"

"No, they went out for a walk with their baby, they should be back pretty soon." The other guard answered.

"Oh, well I'll wait in the throne room." Twilight said back as the guards opened the palace doors to allow the three inside.

As the trio walked through the castle, Starlight expected to find Sunburst, who usually was in the palace during the day, since he was the Crystaller for the empire, but there was no sign of him.

When the three got to the throne room, Starlight went to one of the guards to ask about her friend.

"Excuse me sir, but where is Sunburst?" Starlight asked the guard.

"Oh I'm sorry, Sunburst is sick." The guard answered.

"Sick, with what?" Starlight was a bit worried.

"With the horsey hives." The guard answered back.

"What… What happened?" Starlight kept asking.

"Well…" The guard began.

 **A few days ago…**

It was morning in the crystal empire and Sunburst, like he always does, arrived at the palace for another day, only today he wasn't himself… meaning he didn't look so well.

"Morning Sunburst." A familiar white stallion greeted the orange one.

"Oh morning Prince Shining Armor." Sunburst replied back in a sickly voice.

"Are you okay…" Shining Armor asked, although it was obvious question…

Sunburst had red spots all over his face and legs, one could also guess he had red spots all over him. There was the fact that Sunburst was sneezing and coughing and felt a little dizzy.

"Sunburst, you don't look so well, maybe you should not help take care of Flurry today…" Shining Armor advised. "Maybe you should go home and rest."

"I'm fine, really I am…" Sunburst replied as he sneezed and then fell down on the palace floor.

Shining Armor got a doctor and Sunburst was put on an ambulance cart and carried back to his house, where the doctor took a good look at Sunburst and found out he had the horsey hives. And as soon as Sunburst woke up, he was told as much.

 **Back to the present…**

"So the princess and prince had to take care of the baby all the time, the doctor said that Sunburst just needs to rest for a few days and that no pony is to see him until he feels better." The guard finished.

"Well, that's sad, I hope he gets better." Starlight replied as she sighed.

Meanwhile Twilight, waiting for her family members, was asking the guards in the throne room if they were having any friendship problems, which none of them did. Twilight was beginning to question who exactly was having the problem, but soon enough her answer came as the royal couple returned from their walk with Flurry Heart.

Normally both Cadance and Shining Armor would have been excited to see Twilight and Twilight would do her "ladybugs" chant with Cadance and she would give her big brother a hug. Only as the royal couple walked into the throne room, before they even saw Twilight, Twilight noticed something strange about the two.

They were looking away from each other, both of them with irritated faces on as Cadance was using her magic to hold onto Flurry's carriage. The baby was, of course, happy as always, but her parents, not so much…

"Spike, I think I found the problem…" Twilight whispered to the dragon.

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 **And there we go with a cliffhanger to start off!**

 **Now, if you haven't already guessed it, since Sunburst is sick at home… Who's going to take care of Flurry? Why Starlight of course!**


	2. Getting to the Problem

**Hey everypony! What's up!?**

 **Now before we get to the next chapter, some of you probably think this is similar to the episode, "A Royal Problem" and that's because it is!**

 **And second, thank you to T8ECR34TOR, Rebecca Simms and TrashyAuthor for the favs and/or follows!**

 **And now lets get to it!**

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Chapter 1: Getting to the Problem

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It was a few seconds more until both Cadance and Shining Armor realized that they had three important visitors in the palace and when they did…

"Oh Twily, I didn't realize you were coming." Shining Armor explained, not sounding so excited.

"Well, I wanted it to be a surprise…" Twilight replied, just wanting for Cadance to do the "ladybugs awake" chant, only Cadance didn't seem to be in the mood for it. "What's going on between you two?"

"Nothing, we're just a bit annoyed at each other at the moment." Cadance explained, still facing away from her husband.

"Only because somepony can't seem to agree with me." Shining Armor added.

"Well maybe if you would listen to my suggestions, we would have figured this out already." Cadance retorted.

Now Twilight was really sure this was the reason the map table called her to the Crystal Empire, she sighed as she knew she would not like telling the two the other reason why she was here.

"Listen, I wanted to come here to spend Hearts and Hooves Day with you two, but I also got called by the map to solve a friendship problem and it looks like it's you two." Twilight said, preparing herself for Cadance and Shining Armor's reaction.

"Wait, the map sent you to solve our problem?" Cadance questioned, confused.

"And you alone?" Shining Armor added.

"Pretty much." Twilight replied and decided to start right away. "Why don't we go to a private room, Spike will take notes while we're have a conversation." Twilight using her magic to open her saddle bag and take out some parchment and a quill which she gave to Spike.

"Of course you packed these too." Spike commented as he grabbed onto the writing tools with his claws.

"Wait, who's going to take care of Flurry while we talk?" Cadance asked as she was still holding onto her baby's carriage with her magic.

"I can take care of her." Starlight spoke up before either Twilight and Spike could answer.

"Are you sure?" Shining Armor was a bit worried. "She can be a hoof full to deal with."

"I'm sure, and besides Flurry hasn't spent much time with her auntie Starlight." Starlight smiled as Cadance allowed Starlight to take her baby, Starlight grabbing onto the carriage with her magic.

"Good luck Starlight." Twilight told her student, who after getting directions to Flurry's room from her parents, trotted out of the throne room with the baby. "Okay, now lets get going."

And with that, the royal couple, along with Twilight and Spike went to the palace's living room, where Twilight and Spike sat down on a couch and the royal couple sat down on another couch that was facing the first one.

"Okay, why don't we start by you two telling me when this started." Twilight advised.

"Well, it started when Sunburst had to stay at home when he got sick." Shining Armor started.

"At least we agree on that…" Cadance said in a loud whisper, with Shining Armor giving his wife an annoyed look.

"Good start…" Twilight nervously chuckled. "And what was the first issue?"

"Well Shining Armor here thought it was a good idea to tell Flurry a scary story." Cadance reported.

"It wasn't scary, it was supposed to make her laugh." Shining Armor argued back.

"Dragons aren't funny to babies, they're scary to them!" Cadance shouted softly.

The two argued back and forth while Twilight slowly turned her head to Spike, who had an awkward face on, because, well, he was a dragon after all.

"It's not like she'll become afraid of them in the future." Shining Armor continued.

"And how exactly do you know that?" Cadance snapped back. "Are you now a wizard who can time travel?"

This senseless argument went on for a few more minutes until Twilight decided to get back on track. Literally getting in between the two to return them to a civil conversation, the royal couple calmed down once again, returning to when Twilight first saw them on her visit, facing away from each other.

"This is going to be harder than I thought…" Twilight sighed as she then turned to Spike. "Spike, could you please go check on Starlight and Flurry for me, I'll take this until you get back."

"Sure thing Twilight." The dragon replied as Twilight took the writing tools from her assistant and Spike left the living room.

"Okay, why don't we go another direction." Twilight suggested. "How about we try some exercises, first, I want each of you to tell me one sentence about yourself starting with "I feel", Cadance you go first."

The royal couple both let out a breath as Cadance began.

"I feel like you don't want to listen to what I suggest." Cadance said in her calmest voice.

"Good…" Twilight writing down what Cadance said on the piece of parchment. "Shining Armor?"

"I feel annoyed that you don't think I can take care of our Flurry." Shining Armor added.

This time, before Twilight could comment, Cadance added another statement.

"Well I feel like I'm a better mother than you're a good father." Cadance stated sternly.

"Okay, well I feel…" Shining Armor spoke louder as the two once again fought in front of Twilight.

"I hope Starlight's having a better time than me…" Twilight said in a whisper as the royal couple were fighting it out with words.

Speaking of Starlight…

"Flurry no!" Starlight shouted as the baby was standing on top of the dresser in the room, the baby having magically teleported them and was now giggling happily as she was standing on the dresser, looking like she was going to fall.

Starlight reached out with her front hooves to grab onto the baby alicorn, almost having reached her, only for Flurry to once again teleport away, this time appearing behind Starlight as Starlight got frightened by a second from the sudden appearance as Twilight's student fell on her back on the floor.

This wasn't the only trouble Starlight was having… There were mashed peas on the wall, baby supplies scattered all around the room as well, and an overturned cradle with the blankets out of place. Starlight was tired out as Flurry was flying around the room, giggling happily to herself.

"Why did I have to volunteer for this…" Starlight punishing herself as she suddenly heard the door start to open, acting quickly Starlight teleported herself to the door, on her hooves of course, appearing at the door and blocking the view of the room with her body. "Oh hey Spike, what's up?" Starlight having a fake smile on.

"Twilight just sent me to check on you and Flurry, everything alright here?" Spike asked as he tried looking what was behind Starlight.

"Yup, everything's good here, Flurry and I are getting along quite well." Starlight lied, not sounding so convincing and well, since Starlight has mashed peas all over her face it wasn't hard to figure out she was having a hard time. "Well, good luck on your end Spike!" Starlight quickly told Spike before using her magic to shut the door.

Spike just shrugged his shoulders as he went back to help Twilight with the royal couple and lets just say that Twilight was on the verge of really losing it…

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 **Well that's it!**

 **If you find the chapters a bit short, well it's because this is only a short story after all!**


	3. Author's Note

Hey everypony! What's up!?

So I have decided that I'm not going to continue this story, because it really isn't doing well and I honestly don't even know how to continue or even finish the story.

However, if anyone wants to take the idea and write the rest of the story the way you want, than go ahead! However… It's first come, first serve, so the first person who messages me saying that he or she would like to write the rest of the story, gets ownership for the rest of the story!

That's basically it, I hope somepony takes the offer!


End file.
